‘Jobs’ Becomes Lastest Excuse for Pork

Lawmakers seem to finally be getting the message: the number one priority for most Americans right now is jobs. So what do they do? They run around Capitol Hill slapping the ‘jobs’ label on every little piece of wasteful spending, regardless of whether the measure has anything to do with jobs. So, a bill to set aside thousands of acres of coastal land in St. Croix as a National Historic Site suddenly becomes a ‘jobs’ bill. So also the the Travel Promotion Act, which creates a nonprofit organization to boost U.S. tourism, assumes economic urgency—since it too will create jobs. Of course, let’s not forget the health care bill, which will produce 400,000 jobs. Another one of our favorites is ‘green jobs.’ As The Washington Times put it, ‘there’s no better way to grease the skids for new government programs’ then to dub them as ‘job bills.’ Because who can be against creating jobs?